Current use Youth theater Phone +1 603-654-2613 | Opened 1971 | |
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Owner Non-profit organization Address 582 Isaac Frye Hwy, Wilton, NH 03086, USA Similar Mariposa Museum, New Hampshire Institute o, Daniel Cragin Mill, The Monadnock Center for, Winnipesaukee Playhouse | ||
Andy's Summer Playhouse is a youth theater located in Wilton, New Hampshire.
Contents
Andy's Summer Playhouse programs foster creative collaborations between children and professional artists who work in a variety of media: performance art, theater, dance, music, puppetry, video, set and lighting design and playwriting. In addition to its unique mission to produce original and adapted plays for children, the theater boasts a number of well-known alumni and teaching artists, including Tony Award winning artists Stephen Karam and Lisa Kron, Emmy Award winning artists Paul Jacobs and Sarah Durkee, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire, Caldecott Medal winning authors Brian Selznick and Elizabeth Orton Jones, as well as several Alpert, Bessie, Obie, and Drama Desk Award winning artists.
History
Named after children's book illustrator C. W. Anderson, Andy's was founded in 1971 by two teachers at the Mascenic Regional School, Margaret Sawyer and William Williams. The Playhouse found its first home in Mason, New Hampshire, and was later relocated to a historic meeting house in Wilton. From 1980 to 1993, the playhouse grew under the artistic direction of Dan Hurlin, who attracted a number of internationally recognized artists from PS 122, The Kitchen, 8BC, WOW Cafe and other avant-garde theatre venues in New York City. From 1994 to 2007, the theater was led by Robert Lawson, and DJ Potter served as Artistic Director from 2008 to 2014. Both artists further solidified the organization's professional reputation, and increasingly involved alumni in the artistic and executive operations of the theatre. The theatre is currently led by Jared Mezzocchi.
The building
Andy's sits on the site of the original meeting house of Wilton, a log structure built in 1752 but then torn down and replaced with a larger meeting house in 1779. The second meeting house served the town for 80 years until it burned down in 1859. The town voted to build a third meeting house (the building that stands today) on the same spot, at a cost "not to exceed $2,500" and the building was completed in 1860. The original Paul Revere and Sons bell damaged in the fire was recast by Henry Northey Hooper & Sons of Boston and placed in the new building, where it remains today in the bell tower. In 1883, the town moved its business to a new Town Hall located several miles to the east in what is now downtown Wilton, so the current building was sold in 1884 to a group of interested citizens and renamed Citizens Hall. It served for many years as a public meeting hall, and was taken over by the National Grange organization in 1925, and then by Wilton Lions Club in 1968. The Pine Hill Waldorf School bought the building in 1978 and for several years ran a school on the site. It was sold to Andy's Summer Playhouse on August 11, 1985.